Bianca's Blitzkrieg

"TWO GHETTOS were created in Sighet. A large one in the center of town occupied four streets, and other smaller one extended over several alleyways on the outskirts of town. The streets we live on, Serpent Street, was in the first ghetto. We therefore could remain in our house. But, as it occupied a comer, the windows facing the street outside the ghetto had to be sealed. We gave some of our rooms to relatives who had been driven out of their homes"(Wiesel 11).

Significance: I'm my American studies class, were reading Night by Ellie WieselIn. Based on the quote written above, i can connect the ghettos to today's world. Today, their are buildings that are run by the government for people that don't have the money to provide a home to their family. In the story, their is also buildings that are created by the Nazi government, for Jewish people to live in before they were shipped to concentration camps. The difference between the building that were run by the Nazi government was that they were in bad condition, while the ones today are in better conditions and are created to help families. In the story, living with random people or living in other peoples houses, was considered normal, while today it's not very common. The first chapter really explains the setting of the story, which is mainly the ghettos, where the Jews were put to live. 

How did the Germans define who was Jewish?

My hypothesis is that the Germans did science or observations on people, which they believed looked like they were Jewish. Germans can measure peoples head, nose, eye width etc. to figure out what ethnicity they were. Since Jews are known to have larger noses, it would be easy to figure out what man or woman was a Jew. According to history books, I was correct with my hypothesis because some Germans, did in fact measure a mans nose who they believe was Jewish. They used this method for a while, and that was simply how they determined who was Jewish. Nazis had the authority to stop a man or woman and observe him or her and could say whether they were Jewish or not and execute them or apply a Star of David into the back and front of their clothing. In some cases, some Jewish people, had the Star of David tattooed into some part of their body to be easily recognized by the nazis. Later on in 1935, the nazis had the official definition of a Jew because of the Numerang Laws, which were anti Jewish statuses. "According to this German law, anyone with three Jewish grandparents was a Jew, as was anyone with two Jewish grandparents" (The Holocaust FAQ). Anyone who is married to a Jewish person or who has a Jewish parent was also considered Jewish(The Holocaust FAQ). 

"The Holocaust FAQ", auschuwitz.dk